3,479 research outputs found
Flat Foldings of Plane Graphs with Prescribed Angles and Edge Lengths
When can a plane graph with prescribed edge lengths and prescribed angles
(from among \}) be folded flat to lie in an
infinitesimally thin line, without crossings? This problem generalizes the
classic theory of single-vertex flat origami with prescribed mountain-valley
assignment, which corresponds to the case of a cycle graph. We characterize
such flat-foldable plane graphs by two obviously necessary but also sufficient
conditions, proving a conjecture made in 2001: the angles at each vertex should
sum to , and every face of the graph must itself be flat foldable.
This characterization leads to a linear-time algorithm for testing flat
foldability of plane graphs with prescribed edge lengths and angles, and a
polynomial-time algorithm for counting the number of distinct folded states.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure
Examples, Counterexamples, and Enumeration Results for Foldings and Unfoldings between Polygons and Polytopes
We investigate how to make the surface of a convex polyhedron (a polytope) by
folding up a polygon and gluing its perimeter shut, and the reverse process of
cutting open a polytope and unfolding it to a polygon. We explore basic
enumeration questions in both directions: Given a polygon, how many foldings
are there? Given a polytope, how many unfoldings are there to simple polygons?
Throughout we give special attention to convex polygons, and to regular
polygons. We show that every convex polygon folds to an infinite number of
distinct polytopes, but that their number of combinatorially distinct gluings
is polynomial. There are, however, simple polygons with an exponential number
of distinct gluings.
In the reverse direction, we show that there are polytopes with an
exponential number of distinct cuttings that lead to simple unfoldings. We
establish necessary conditions for a polytope to have convex unfoldings,
implying, for example, that among the Platonic solids, only the tetrahedron has
a convex unfolding. We provide an inventory of the polytopes that may unfold to
regular polygons, showing that, for n>6, there is essentially only one class of
such polytopes.Comment: 54 pages, 33 figure
Skeletal Rigidity of Phylogenetic Trees
Motivated by geometric origami and the straight skeleton construction, we
outline a map between spaces of phylogenetic trees and spaces of planar
polygons. The limitations of this map is studied through explicit examples,
culminating in proving a structural rigidity result.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure
Spontaneous magnetisation in the plane
The Arak process is a solvable stochastic process which generates coloured
patterns in the plane. Patterns are made up of a variable number of random
non-intersecting polygons. We show that the distribution of Arak process states
is the Gibbs distribution of its states in thermodynamic equilibrium in the
grand canonical ensemble. The sequence of Gibbs distributions form a new model
parameterised by temperature. We prove that there is a phase transition in this
model, for some non-zero temperature. We illustrate this conclusion with
simulation results. We measure the critical exponents of this off-lattice model
and find they are consistent with those of the Ising model in two dimensions.Comment: 23 pages numbered -1,0...21, 8 figure
Bounds on the maximum multiplicity of some common geometric graphs
We obtain new lower and upper bounds for the maximum multiplicity of some
weighted and, respectively, non-weighted common geometric graphs drawn on n
points in the plane in general position (with no three points collinear):
perfect matchings, spanning trees, spanning cycles (tours), and triangulations.
(i) We present a new lower bound construction for the maximum number of
triangulations a set of n points in general position can have. In particular,
we show that a generalized double chain formed by two almost convex chains
admits {\Omega}(8.65^n) different triangulations. This improves the bound
{\Omega}(8.48^n) achieved by the double zig-zag chain configuration studied by
Aichholzer et al.
(ii) We present a new lower bound of {\Omega}(12.00^n) for the number of
non-crossing spanning trees of the double chain composed of two convex chains.
The previous bound, {\Omega}(10.42^n), stood unchanged for more than 10 years.
(iii) Using a recent upper bound of 30^n for the number of triangulations,
due to Sharir and Sheffer, we show that n points in the plane in general
position admit at most O(68.62^n) non-crossing spanning cycles.
(iv) We derive lower bounds for the number of maximum and minimum weighted
geometric graphs (matchings, spanning trees, and tours). We show that the
number of shortest non-crossing tours can be exponential in n. Likewise, we
show that both the number of longest non-crossing tours and the number of
longest non-crossing perfect matchings can be exponential in n. Moreover, we
show that there are sets of n points in convex position with an exponential
number of longest non-crossing spanning trees. For points in convex position we
obtain tight bounds for the number of longest and shortest tours. We give a
combinatorial characterization of the longest tours, which leads to an O(nlog
n) time algorithm for computing them
(2+1) gravity for higher genus in the polygon model
We construct explicitly a (12g-12)-dimensional space P of unconstrained and
independent initial data for 't Hooft's polygon model of (2+1) gravity for
vacuum spacetimes with compact genus-g spacelike slices, for any g >= 2. Our
method relies on interpreting the boost parameters of the gluing data between
flat Minkowskian patches as the lengths of certain geodesic curves of an
associated smooth Riemann surface of the same genus. The appearance of an
initial big-bang or a final big-crunch singularity (but never both) is verified
for all configurations. Points in P correspond to spacetimes which admit a
one-polygon tessellation, and we conjecture that P is already the complete
physical phase space of the polygon model. Our results open the way for
numerical investigations of pure (2+1) gravity.Comment: 35 pages, 22 figure
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